The War.
To a much greater extent than in the previous three years, Canadian life in 1942 was dominated by the war. The shelling of Estevan Point on Vancouver Island by a Japanese submarine on June 20 marked the first attack on Canadian soil in the history of Canada as a Dominion. Far more serious, however, was the loss of twenty United Nations merchant ships in the St. Lawrence River and Gulf during the year. There had been no such sinkings in 1940 or 1941. One of the sinkings in the St. Lawrence in October occurred as high up the river as Metia Beach, while the sinking of the Nova Scotia-Newfoundland ferry a few weeks earlier in Cabot Strait cost the lives of 137 persons, including sixteen women and fourteen children.
The catastrophe at Hongkong on Christmas Day, 1941, involving a considerable number of Canadian troops, and the huge Canadian losses suffered in the Dieppe raid also had repercussions in Canada. Resentment over Hongkong was particularly strong when it was revealed in the House of Commons on Jan. 21 that the 212 vehicles of the Canadian expeditionary force never reached the troops at Hongkong but were sidetracked at Manila where they 'remained under the direction of the United States naval authorities there.' A parliamentary inquiry was held into the circumstances under which some 138 men were sent to Hongkong without having the minimum required training. The losses at Dieppe, as announced on Sept. 18 by Defense Minister J. L. Ralston, were 170 dead, 633 wounded, and 2,547 missing out of an attack force of 5,000 Canadian troops who made up five-sixths of the assault forces. Criticism over the heavy losses was minimized by the optimistic reports given by the Canadian soldiers returning to Canada after the raid.
In contrast to the sobering effect of these heavy losses was the enthusiastic response to joint Canadian-American operations against the Japanese in Alaskan waters. Following the Japanese seizure of Kiska and the bombing of Dutch Harbor, it was revealed that Canadian ground, air, and naval forces were cooperating with those of the United States in defense of Alaska. An agreement was later worked out for an exchange of facilities between the United States and Canada for training airmen and parachute troops.
Canadian military forces continued to expand rapidly during the year. On June 17, it was announced that single men and childless widowers up to and including 35 years of age were subject to military training and service. The age limit for compulsory service had previously been 30 years of age. On Oct. 13, Colonel J. L. Ralston, Minister of National Defense, disclosed in London that there were 'well over 500,000' Canadians on active service. He declared that the Canadian army included 335,000 officers and men available for general service. The Royal Canadian Air Force strength was placed at 130,000. The Dominion's overseas army is made up of two army corps consisting of three infantry divisions, two armored divisions, and two army tank divisions. Colonel Ralston asserted that the army had been carried overseas by the Atlantic convoy system without the loss of a single man.
The rigors of war were also felt much more acutely on the home front in 1942 than in the previous years of the war. Rationing was introduced in Canada for the first time in the last week of January when an informal sugar rationing scheme was put into effect. Gasoline rationing started on Apr. 1 with a system in which the average annual ration was 300 to 380 gallons for nonessential cars and unlimited amounts of gasoline for all types of commercial vehicles. Warning was given in November that meat rationing might start in six months. Price control had been in effect since Dec. 1, 1941. Control over business and production roughly paralleled that of the United States. The last automobiles came off the assembly lines early in 1942. The manufacture of electric toasters, broilers, grills, and metal furniture was halted on Mar. 1, and at about the same time the making of double-breasted suits for men was prohibited to save cloth. Building materials and lighting fixtures became scarce and difficult to obtain. Finally, on Nov. 2, the Wartime Prices and Trade Board issued an order freezing all business establishments at their existing status.
Aided by these restrictions, the output of war materials continued to expand rapidly throughout the year with the peak in production expected about the middle of 1943. By the end of 1942 approximately 885,000 were employed in Canada's war industries, of whom about 75,000 men and women were employed in aircraft production alone. New, fast, light mosquito bombers, Curtiss 'Hell Divers,' and heavy, four-engine Lancasters were being made in Canada. It has been revealed that Canadian scientists have developed and Canadian plants are turning out the most powerful explosive of the war. One 10,000-ton merchant vessel is launched every three days from a Canadian shipyard, and the Dominion turned out more than ten types of heavy guns. Bren gun production exceeded 3,000 a month, and tanks were exported to Russia at the rate of three a day.
The extent of Canada's war contribution on the economic front may be seen from Prime Minister Mackenzie King's statement to the House of Commons on Jan. 27 that Canada was planning to supply Britain with munitions of war, raw materials, and foodstuffs to the amount of $1,000,000,000 without charge and without obligation. It was anticipated that this amount of goods would actually be delivered by the early part of 1943. This, of course, does not include equipment for the Canadian army or air force. On Nov. 26, the Bank of Montreal estimated Canada's annual production of war material at $2,500,000,000. It was also estimated that Canada's war plant, practically nonexistent in 1939, was worth more than $4,000,000,000 and was still growing, and that Canada was spending $7,000,000 a day on the war by the end of the year, of which slightly less than half was raised by taxation.
As a result of the war, Canada's foreign trade reached an all-time high in 1942. Imports totalled nearly $2,000,000,000, and exports passed the $2,000,000,000 mark. About 65 per cent of the total was war supplies.
Politics.
The outstanding political issue of the year, as of the previous year, was the drafting of men for overseas service. It will be recalled that in 1940 Prime Minister Mackenzie King had made a pre-election pledge that no Canadian boys would be sent to fight on foreign soil against their will. When it became clear that it would be necessary to send conscripted soldiers to the European battlefront, Mr. King decided to hold a special plebiscite asking for release from his pledge. The decision precipitated a heated controversy. Many strong supporters of conscription, particularly among the Conservatives, opposed holding the plebiscite and declared that they would vote 'no' as a protest against what they regarded as the Prime Minister's half-hearted war policies. The opponents of conscription accused the Prime Minister of bad faith for proposing to break his word, even with the consent of the electorate. Opposition to conscription was, of course, centered largely in Quebec where it was a heritage of the last war. Among French-Canadians, anticonscription feeling was strong in all political parties although a few Liberals urged that the Prime Minister be granted a free hand.
The plebiscite was held on Apr. 27. As was expected, all of the provinces except Quebec voted overwhelmingly to release the Prime Minister from his pledge. In Quebec, however, the vote was 3 to 1 against conscription. The vote was close in Montreal, but in some parts of the province the vote ran 30 to 1 and even 40 to 1 against releasing the Prime Minister. Opposition was also strong in some French-speaking districts bordering Quebec, especially in the Bay of Chaleur district of New Brunswick, but the Maritime Provinces as a whole voted decisively in the Affirmative. The Western Provinces also voted strongly in favor of conscription, so despite Quebec's opposition the Prime Minister triumphed by a vote of better than 3 to 2. This, however, was a somewhat smaller margin than had been hoped for, and the strength of Quebec's opposition was sufficient to cause the government to hesitate several months before introducing an overseas conscription bill in Parliament.
The conflict within the Cabinet over the issue came to a head early in May when the leader of the Quebec Liberals, P. J. A. Cardin, Minister of Public Works and Transportation, resigned rather than agree to conscription. Concern was felt lest the entire French-Canadian delegation in Parliament would break with the Government, thus creating a serious breach in the country that would make the application of conscription inadvisable. By the end of July, however, when the bill authorizing drafting men for overseas service finally came up for a vote in Parliament, Mr. Cardin declared that when the law was enacted Quebec would obey it. This ended the controversy. On July 29, the Canadian Senate passed the bill 42 to 9, and it became law.
With a view to conciliating Quebec, Prime Minister King appointed three French-Canadian leaders as members of the Canadian Cabinet on Oct. 7. Major General L. R. LaFlèche was named as Minister of the National War Services with responsibility for raising men for the armed forces. Ernest Bertrand was named as Minister of Fisheries, and Alphonse Fournier, Liberal member from Hull, was appointed Minister of Public Works. Thomas Vien, member of Parliament from the Outremont district of Montreal, was appointed to fill one of the fifteen vacancies in the Senate. The previous Minister of Fisheries, J. E. Michaud, was shifted to the Ministry of Transport. The changes were well received in Quebec.
On Nov. 4, Prime Minister King announced the appointment of L. Dana Wilgress, Deputy Minister of Trade and Commerce, as Minister to the Soviet Union; Major General Victor W. Odlum was named Minister to China; Justice T. C. Davis of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeals replaced Major General Odlum as High Commissioner in Australia; and Professor Warwick F. Chipman of McGill University was designated Minister to Chile.
Two series of Parliamentary by-elections were held during the year. In the first, held on Feb. 9, a major sensation was caused by the defeat of former Premier Arthur Meighen, Conservative, by Joseph Noseworthy of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in the South District of Toronto. Mr. Meighen had recently been called out of retirement to lead the Conservative party. South Toronto was considered so overwhelmingly Conservative that the Liberals did not even bother to run a candidate against Meighen, and the C.C.F. candidate had not been taken very seriously in view of the fact that the C.C.F. had never held a seat from Ontario. The vote revealed, however, tremendous opposition to Meighen, a notorious reactionary — an opposition that apparently pervaded all political parties.
A further warning of growing C.C.F. strength was given the government, however, in the Welland division of Ontario where the new Labor Minister, Humphrey Mitchell, won out with an unexpectedly close victory over a comparatively unknown C.C.F. candidate and an Independent Liberal.
Government supporters won easily, however, in two Quebec districts. In Quebec East, the newly appointed Minister of Justice, Louis St. Laurent, defeated his Canada party opponent, Paul Bouchard. Mr. Bouchard, a former member of Parliament, ran on a straight anticonscription platform. In the St. Mary district of Montreal the Liberal Gaspard Fauteux won over three opponents.
In the second series of by-elections, held on Nov. 30, Maj. Gen. L. R. LaFlèche, the new Minister of National War Services, won easily in Montreal Outremont. In Charlevoix-Saguenay, the Liberal candidate was defeated by an independent. The C.C.F. held Winnipeg North Center.
Civil Liberties.
The problem of preserving essential civil liberties in Canada in wartime has been made difficult by the sweeping nature of the Defense of Canada Regulations. This has resulted in a lack of consistency in the enforcement in different parts of the country and a considerable difference of opinion with regard to what constitutes sedition. Because of the vagueness in the language of law, many men accused of sedition have been released because judges hesitated to make an interpretation that might be overruled in a higher court.
In the past year, however, controversy has revolved chiefly around the status of the Communist Party. Together with thirty-three other organizations, the Communist Party of Canada was declared illegal and its property placed under the control of a custodian under Sections 39 and 39A of the Defense of Canada Regulations. Needless to say this action was taken before the Soviet Union entered the war on the side of the United Nations. Prior to the German attack on the Soviet Union, Canadian Communists had been lukewarm in support of the war, and it was feared that they might even commit acts of sabotage. Since June 1941, however, the Communists and their sympathizers have become ardent supporters of the war, and the continued suppression of the Communist Party has been regarded by many Canadians as a needless insult to Russia. Even ex-Premier Hepburn, avowedly anti-labor, urged that the party be restored to its former legal status. Canada is the only English-speaking country in the world in which the Communist Party has been illegal. In England the Communists maintained a representative in Parliament throughout the entire 1939-1941 period when their party was in disrepute.
The National Council for Democratic Rights urges that the following steps be taken to restore basic civil rights: (1) Release of all interned and imprisoned anti-Fascists; (2) removal of the ban against the Communist Party and all other anti-Fascist organizations; (3) return to such bodies all property that has been confiscated; (4) removal of the ban against anti-Fascist newspapers and periodicals; (5) guarantees be given for the protection of trade union rights; (6) repeal of Section 21 of the Defense of Canada Regulations, together with all other sections that restrict the rights of free speech, free assembly, and freedom of organization. The Civil Liberties Association of Toronto also urged that Regulation 21 be amended.
Acting in response to public criticism, the new Minister of Justice, Mr. St. Laurent, announced early in May the setting up of a parliamentary committee to consider and review the Defense of Canada Regulations. This committee recommended that the ban be lifted on the Communist Party, Jehovah's Witnesses, and several other organizations that were in no way connected with the Axis. With a view to precipitating action, thirteen members of the Communist Party including its Secretary, Tim Buck, surrendered to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Sept. 25. They had been sought for internment since the party had been declared illegal in June 1940. Less than a fortnight later, the entire group was released 'conditionally' by Justice Minister St. Laurent. But no action was announced legalizing the Communist Party as recommended by the parliamentary committee. Later, on Nov. 14, Earl Browder, the American Communist leader, was barred from Canada on the ground that the party was still illegal in Canada.
United States-Canadian Relations.
Many steps have been taken during the past year to facilitate cooperation between the United States and the Dominion of Canada. A joint board to purchase and allocate raw materials for war production was set up early in January. The construction of the Alaskan Highway across Canadian territory necessitated the cutting of much red tape. All war materials now move without interruption across the border both ways between Canada and Alaska. American and Canadian fishing boats receive the same treatment when they enter a Pacific Coast port regardless of whether the port is in Canada or the United States. American whalers have been granted permission to use a port in the Queen Charlotte Islands. Joint defense plans in the Northwest have resulted in Canadian sea, land, and air forces participating in the defense of the Aleutians. Plans also have been worked out for an interchange of facilities in the air training program of the two countries.
Six changes have been made in Canadian customs procedure to speed the interchange of war supplies with the United States. They include: (1) broadening the free list to include many items hitherto subject to duty; (2) remission of customs duties on imports from the United States that go into products manufactured in Canada for others of the United Nations; (3) purchases of war materials from the United States by the Department of Munitions and Supply are exempt from duty except when such supplies are on Canadian account; (4) Canadian export permits are not required for the export of Canadian war supplies; (5) customs officials at Canadian ports of entry have been directed by the Minister of National Revenues to permit war supplies to be delivered by the railways to consignees in Canada even before they have passed entry; (6) the United States Government has been given special concessions with respect to imports into Canada both for the building of certain of its establishments in various parts of the Dominion and for its engineering requirements on the Alaska Highway. (See CIVIL ENGINEERING: Highways.)
With a view to promoting still closer relationships between the two countries, Canada was granted a place on the Combined Resources Allocation Board at the end of October. In taking this place, Canada attained full equality with Great Britain and the United States on a top United Nations policy-making body.
As a culmination of growing wartime cooperation between the United States and Canada, it was announced on Dec. 1 that a comprehensive agreement had been signed by the two countries aimed at establishing freer trade both between them and in the world after the war. The two countries agree in principle to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers between them, and to eliminate all forms of discriminatory treatment in international commerce in line with the objectives of the Atlantic Charter. The agreement will be open to participation by all other nations of like mind.
Dominion-Province Cooperation.
Except for the controversy over the draft in which Quebec separatism was very much involved, the Dominion-provincial conflicts of previous years were little in evidence in 1942. The resignation of Premier Hepburn of Ontario on Oct. 21 ended the spectacular personal feud which had raged for years between the Prime Minister of Canada and the Premier of Ontario, a feud that was in no way lessened by the fact that the two men were both members of the Liberal party until Hepburn was expelled in February 1942. Hepburn's successor, Attorney General Gordon Conant, held many of the same political views as Hepburn but had no personal grudge against Prime Minister King.
Agreements were reached in January with the nine provinces on a plan to compensate them for consenting to abandon use of the personal income and corporation taxes for the duration of the war. Five provinces — British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec — accepted a proposal whereby the Dominion reimbursed the provincial treasuries by the amount the province obtained from income taxes in 1940; and four provinces — Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island — accepted the alternative option under which the Dominion assumed the cost of net debt services paid by the province in 1940. A study prepared by the Dominion Securities Corporation shows the range of revenues to be supplied by the Dominion ranges from 36.6 per cent in Alberta to 62.2 per cent in New Brunswick. The following are the total amounts payable to each province: Prince Edward Island, $701,943; Nova Scotia, $2,909,430; New Brunswick, $3,650,067; Quebec, $20,704,737; Ontario, $28,961,488; Manitoba, $5,634,740; Saskatchewan, $5,830,471; Alberta, $4,080,218; British Columbia, $12,048,367. The agreements will remain in force until one year after the end of the war when the Dominion agrees to reduce its tax rate so as to permit the provinces to reenter the tax field which they have temporarily vacated.
Finance and Business.
Finance Minister J. E. Ilsley estimated total expenditures for war and nonmilitary purposes for the fiscal year beginning Apr. 1, 1942 at $3,570,000,000, including a $1,000,000,000 gift to Great Britain. By June, however, when he presented his budget, he raised this estimate to $3,900,000,000. This figure compared with expenditures in the 1941-42 fiscal year of $1,894,956,000 plus $1,050,000,000 advanced to Great Britain for the purchase of supplies in Canada. Income for the fiscal year was $1,481,285,000, leaving a deficit of $413,681,000 — not counting the amount advanced to Great Britain.
To meet the sharp increase in expenditures, new taxes were levied in the 1942 budget to raise approximately $377,850,000. The income tax was expected to yield $115,000,000 more than in the previous year. Under the new law, a married man with an income of $2,000 a year is liable for a tax of $431 a year as compared with $175 in the previous year. Of this amount, $231 will be considered as the regular tax, and $200 will be refunded after the war with 2 per cent interest. The excess profits tax was increased from 75 to 100 per cent, and additional taxes were added to the existing levies on tobacco, liquor, soft drinks, furs, transportation, telephones, chewing gum, jewelry, and other luxury goods.
In mid-August the figure for expenditures was raised upward once again. Instead of a total of $3,900,000,000, it was estimated that they might reach $4,600,000,000. This is well over half Canada's national income, which has been estimated unofficially at $7,900,000,000 for 1942-43 as against $5,400,000,000 for 1939-41. Before the war, the Dominion Government's budget was approximately 13 per cent of the national income; by 1940-41 it had risen to 20 per cent, and by 1941-42 to 40 per cent.
Despite sharply increased taxation, the Dominion Government has been forced to meet most of the cost of the war by borrowing. Although Finance Minister Ilsley had repeatedly warned that bank loans are apt to lead to inflation, he was forced early in August to borrow $75,000,000 a week from banks by means of deposit certificates. This type of borrowing, however, was only temporary. The Second Victory Loan for $600,000,000 was floated successfully in February, yielding a total of $997,503,300. In October the Dominion launched a Third Victory Loan designed to raise $750,000,000. It was subscribed to by more than 1,200,000 individual subscribers out of Canada's total population of 11,500,000, and the $750,000,000 goal was exceeded by more than $130,000,000.
In his annual report to the Minister of Finance filed early in 1942, G. F. Towers, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, declared that $259,000,000 par value of Canada's external debt had been retired during 1941 as compared with $187,000,000 in 1940. This brought the total retirement in the Canadian debt payable abroad to $1,048,000,000 (Canadian dollars) in the six-year period from 1936 to 1941; $203,000,000 of the 1941 retirements represented obligations of the Dominion and the Canadian National Railroad; $34,000,000 consisted of obligations of the provinces; and $22,000,000 obligations of private corporations. New bond issues of the Dominion Government and the Canadian National Railroad — which are guaranteed by the government — amounted to $732,000,000 during 1941, excluding Treasury bills.
The net profits of the Bank of Canada from operations were $5,813,386 after providing for contingencies and reserves. After payment of dividends amounting to $225,000, the net was $5,588,386 as compared with $3,819,460 in 1940. The increase in earnings was attributed mainly to the fact that the bank's investments increased by an average of $158,000,000 during the year.
Business activity, except for some nonessential industries, was at a record high during 1942. The index of the physical volume of business for the first six months of the year averaged 136.3 as compared with 129.3 in the corresponding period of 1941. The output of the mining industries dropped 2.5 per cent to 123.3, but manufacturing production advanced from 139.2 to 151.6, a gain of nearly 9 per cent. Railroad carloadings rose from 1,495,000 in the first half of 1941 to 1,635,000 in the first six months of 1942. The gross revenue of the Canadian National Railways rose from $120,700,000 to $149,000,000, while the gross revenue of the Canadian Pacific increased from $100,300,000 to $121,000,000, a rise of 20.6 per cent.
Although the Canadian Government had instituted a rigorous system of price and wage control at the close of 1941, the cost of living continued to rise slowly during the year. The Dominion Bureau of Statistics reported in August that its adjusted cost of living index stood at 117.0 on July 1, 1942 as compared with 114.6 on Oct. 1, 1941. It was estimated that 90 per cent of the increase was in food prices. Beginning on Aug. 15, Canadian wage earners received a 2.4 bonus on their wages to compensate them for the higher cost of living. The order did not apply to agricultural workers, domestic servants, or government or municipal employees. Civil service employees received a special bonus of $18.42 a month — an increase from the $11.91 bonus previously paid. This bonus is not payable to employees — except manual workers — earning over $2,100 a year.
Agriculture.
The year was an exceptionally good one for Canadian agriculture. The wheat, oats, and barley crops were heavy and of good grade everywhere in Western Canada. Thirty to thirty-five bushels of wheat to the acre was reported from most districts with an occasional yield running as high as fifty bushels. Harvesting was slow, however, due to the shortage of agricultural labor, but part of this lack was remedied by the recruiting of special workers in Ontario for work in the fields of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
With a view to discouraging excessive wheat production at the expense of the coarser grains, the Dominion Government continued to restrict its purchases. Provision was made, however, for the purchase of 280,000,000 bushels, an increase of 50,000,000 bushels over the total purchased in the 1941-42 crop year. The price for government purchase of wheat was set at 90 cents a bushel at Fort William, Ontario, an increase of 20 cents a bushel over the 1941 price. Producers of oats, barley, and flax were paid a bonus of $2 an acre in addition to a sharply increased price for their product. A minimum price of 60 cents a bushel at Fort William was set for barley, and 45 cents a bushel was set as the minimum price for oats. The fixed price for flaxseed was $2.25 a bushel, an increase of 61 cents a bushel from the 1941 figure. A special effort was made to encourage wide planting of flax to offset the Allied losses in vegetable oils which are usually obtained from the Far East. The results were reasonably satisfactory. It is estimated that a total of 1,517,000 acres were devoted to flax in the three prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta as against 982,000 acres in 1941.
J. C. Gardiner, Agricultural Minister in the Dominion Government, on Sept. 18 announced a program designed to make use of the vast stores of grain that had been accumulated in past years and to increase Canada's output of animal products. Under this program a new agreement was signed with Great Britain providing for a sharp increase in bacon exports to the United Kingdom. Steps were taken to restore a normal volume of pork sales on the Canadian market without interference with British requirements. When this has been achieved, it is believed that the provision of an adequate amount of pork will release beef for the United States market and thus permit the United States to divert some of its beef for shipment to Britain. Steps are also being undertaken to encourage the feeding of beef cattle until they are at least three years old and to bring about an increase in the number of animals turned into beef. It is believed that the present supplies of grain are sufficient to permit planning for a two-year program.
The provincial government of Ontario has taken steps to encourage an expansion in dairy production. A bonus of two cents a pound is paid for cheddar cheese. This cheese subsidy goes back to the farmers through the cheese factories. This bonus costs the Ontario government approximately $2,200,000 a year.
Labor Relations.
Minor strikes and labor disputes occurred in various parts of Canada during the year, but there were few major work stoppages. Among the more serious disputes was a strike in the steel industry in Nova Scotia, a ship strike at Midland and Kingston, Ontario, and a lockout at Kitchener, Ontario. . .[ Two pages of this article are missing from the original book] . . .
Canning. (continued from missing pages)
During 1942 the canning industry operated under a constantly increasing number of regulations, such as those relating to conservation of steel and tin for cans, rubber for closures on glass containers, and steel and other materials required for equipment and machinery; rationing of sugar and other materials; control of prices to be paid for canning crops and to be charged for finished products; reservation of goods for government use; distribution of products to the civilian markets; control of the purchase and use of trucks, tires, and gasoline. In addition, the industry was confronted with a difficult labor supply problem arising from the draft and the migration of labor to employment in airplane and munitions factories, shipyards, and other war industries.
The fact that the regulations were developed during the course of the year, and were subject to numerous amendments and revisions, made their impact on the industry more difficult to meet. On the other hand, government procurement methods were organized in such a way as to facilitate and expedite the purchase of supplies for the armed forces.
As the year drew to a close, the need by processors of seasonal crops for advance information and advance planning for their 1943 operations was recognized by the calling of a conference of food processors, including canners, dehydrators, frozen food packers, and preservers. At this December conference representatives of the various government agencies presented information on food production requirements and regulations for the coming year. Just before this conference, food production and distribution was placed under the direction of the Secretary of Agriculture, and manpower control was centralized in the War Manpower Commission.
Two new types of metal containers for canned foods came into use during the year and will be used more extensively in 1943. Both were designed to save tin. One is a can made of tin plate, the tin on which is deposited by electrolysis instead of by immersion of the plate in a bath of molten tin. The electrolytic method requires less than half the amount of tin used in making the ordinary 'hot-dipped' tin plate. The other is a can made of chemically treated sheet steel to which an enamel coating is applied. These two types of cans will be used for products for which they are adapted.
Under the auspices of the National Canners Association and with the collaboration of can-manufacturing industries, a program of nutrition research on canned foods was undertaken in 1942 and will be expanded in 1943. The work is being carried on through financial grants to universities. The first part of the program, which includes the assay of about twenty-five canned products for vitamin and important mineral content, involved the study of about 30,000 samples of these foods taken from all parts of the country.
